Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Celine Phantom Suede

A gorgeous couple and a beautiful bag.
I wonder what size of her phantom is. This might be the medium (not the small) size, considering that Ms. Huntington-Whitely is 5ft 9in height and the bag still looks in proportion for her.

The green suede colour looks sooo refreshing on her. Oh and her man *Helloooo Mr. Statham* looks so cool and dashing

Tory Burch Robinson Double Zip Tote

I am a fans of Tory Burch Robinson collection.
So when a tote bag insaffiano leather with longstrap was launched, I was excited. I thought that the style is great for daily handbag and the price is relatively cheaper compared to Prada's tote bag in saffiano leather. Check my previous post in here when I drooled over this Robinson (and Prada tote) bag.

So here is my new Tory Burch Robinson Double Zip Tote in Black

front

back

Gold hardwares

The bag has great details on its hardwares. Check this close up photos. TB logo or name or ornament is embossed on most of the gold hardwares.

Made in China (no surprise)

With this price range, I should not expect that the bag will be tagged as Made in Italy :p
But see how tiny and thin the Made in China' plastic tag is!

Weight

Whenever I used the bag, I always felt that it is NOT a lightweight bag. So I took it to the bathroom scale and it weighs 1.2kg when it is empty and longstrap is attached. Note that the weight may not be 100% accurate as my digital scale is old enough :p

When the bag is worn

In my opinion, the best to wear the bag is to have it handcarried without the longstrap. The bag will show its best shape and it looks neat! This is how it looks when it is handcarried (but sorry, no mod pics yet :( )

When the longstrap is used, can I give a suggestion that the magnetic closure must be always fastened?

In the next few pics, you may see the difference when the magnetic closure is fastend or unfastened and how it affects the shape of the bag!

So, this is the bag worn with longstrap and the magnetic closure is fastened.
The shape of the bag is still in 'boxy/square-ish' shape as it should be for a tote bag.
And notice the 2 next pictures where the longstrap 'pulled' up (with strong power) the saffiano inside lining and for me it looks a bit fragile! I am afraid that sooner or later it may damage the stitches!

And now see when the bag is worn with longstrap with magnetic closure is unfastened.
The bag shape now looks like a 'parallelogram' lol. No longer a boxy/square-ish-shaped bag as it should be for a tote bag ;) The bag does not look neat for a tote bag and this fact quite annoys me though :((
Ooh, and also notice in the last photo that the issue of its longstrap pulling up the saffiano inside lining (in full power) still exists :(

My verdict

As a conclusion, this is still a great bag for me. But whenever I want to use it, I would leave the longstrap at home and have the bag handcarried. Then I believe that the bag will showcase its best chic and classic shape to everyone looking at it ;)



Pssst, the bag was empty when all these pics were taken.

Current obsession: ostrich handbags

image from Gleni.it

image from Gleni.it

I am not talking about any Hermes bags made from ostrich. This bag is definitely beyond my current league :p

Instead, I am talking about my current wishlist of having a nice hobo bag made from ostrich leather. Ostrich leather itself already looks ellegant and rich. A simple hobo design will be enough and we have to let the 'leather' speaks for itself - because the leather texture is already beautiful and unique. I do not mind of having an ostrich handbag from not-so-premium brands or even non-branded name. As I know the price for ostrich leather is soooo expensive when there is a big name printed on it.

So I browsed around looking for ostrich bag reference and found some names that have specialized themselves in designing handbag made from exotic skins, including ostrich.

Gleni

I like this simple design of sky blue ostrich hobo bag from Gleni. Honestly, the shape of the bag reminds me of a style from one of the big mansions in the world. But I still like it though ;)

image from Gleni.it

Nuti

Chic hobo bag in warm havana ostrich leather. Very classic! The name of this style is referred as 'Newyorker' from Nuti.

image from Nuti.it and google search

But again, I am not about to buy any of their ostrich handbags. My plan is to have a custom-made ostrich handbag. And it will be locally made. I have seen the sample during the recent local handicraft exhibition, and I felt pleased enough about the their craftsmanship. Hence, I have decided to venture myself to order one.

So here is the local name that designs nice and quality ostrich handbags (and other bags made from exotic skins).

Aiyla

And these are the ostrich leather swatch that was shown to me. The colour IRL is to die for. Bold and bright. Just what I like!

Now I just need to set up an appointment with them to visit the showroom/workshop and select the perfect leather. I am currently thinking about orange or fuchsia ostrich with the matching lambskin for bag lining. Hmmm it sounds so devine already. Can't wait!



Psssssst, by the way, I have recently bought their croco wallet and clutch and I am so happy with this recent purchase.

Inside my bag: a bag for overseas trip

It has been a while since I made a post about inside my bag;)
So I guess today is the right time to do so, as yesterday night (almost midnight) I just returned from an overseas trip, and my bag (and its contents) has not been changed. It was a short trip and during the whole two days I was always on the move and ran errands. So I needed a good bag companion which is big, easy to handle, not heavy and secured enough to keep my valuable belongings (like passport, etc).


I chose to bring my python hobo bag in 'unbleached' grey colour from pla. The python skin is finished as unbleached so the python patterns/spots/marks (those in darker grey colour) remains on it. Else a fully bleached python bag will have the same colourtone all over it). The bag is BIG, which is perfect for the purpose of this trip.

The bag has a detachable pocket (also made from real python skin) which I like!

And inside of this big python hobo is my many cluttered things which I tried to organize into several small pouches. I used to like a bag ornanizer but now I much prefer to use small pouches as most of the times I can find my stuffs easily (without peeking into the bag) by touching and instantly recognizing the 'shape' of the pouch. It may sound odd but it works well for me :p Ooh, one thing missing from my bag in this pic is an iPad, as sometimes I asked my husband to carry it in his handbag ;)
See, I carried quite a lot of stuffs, right :p

Ok, let me 'break down' those clutters inside my bag;)


A Prada wallet that contained only the foreign currency in small denomination and coins which must be sufficient enough to pay for meals, taxi and tips. Note that I did not (and never) keep any atm or credit cards inside this Prada wallet.

A Tulisan money pouch where I keep the foreign currency in big denomination. No coins or small notes or atm/credit cards inside!

A small pouch from Seabreeze Studio @Etsy which is nicely designed and very good for travelling. It has 2 zip pockets, 1 open pocket and lobster clasp. I like it so much! This small pouch has the local currencies, overseas SIM cards (for mobile phone and iPad to avoid any unnecessary roaming :P) and a paper clip. The paper clip is intended to open the iPad's sim card holder and to replace its sim card.

A Bottega Veneta card case in steel colour is to keep my atm cards, credit cards, ID card and driving licence.

In conclusion, I had intentionally organized the money and cards into 4 different wallets/pouches.
The reason behind it is simple, because I remember very well an idimoatic phrase of "Do not put all your eggs in one basket". I could not imagine if I put all my resources into one wallet and it got stollen wheile I am abroad. It will be a nightmare for me!!! So this system always works well for me whenever I had an overseas trip.

My passport with Coach leather passport cover. I adore its green colour on this passport cover. And it is very durable as I have had it for more than 5 years and never had a thought to replace it.

A blue pouch from Auntie Betsie where I kept brochures, leaflats, maps, receipts, hotel bill, etc..... The size is small so most of those papers had to be folded into it.

A small fuchsia Moleskine notebook where I normally write down things I have to do and to visit during the trip. I also wrote down stuffs like hotel name, address, phone number in this notebook (this may become handy when talking to the taxi driver) and tried to record the shopping expenses as well (but most of the time I was lazy on this expense things) hehehe:P

A pencil case from Jim Thompson that I bought almost 7 years ago during Thailand trip. Inside the case I had a pencil, pencil eraser, 2 black pens and small post-it.

A matching pocket mirror from Jim Thompson which was also bought almost 7 years ago in Bangkok.

A three-fold business card with keyfob from Cassy Lain Totes @Etsy where I kept the undergound/mrt card and its small folded network map. It is bright and can easily be found inside the bag. So I can grab it fast and tap it on the machine to get in and out of the station's platform.

A make-up pouch from Tulisan. The pouch has the following contents: (1) MAC pressed compact powder, (2) Shu Uemure blush on, (3) MAC lipstick, (4) Shu Uemura retractable brush (for blush on), (5) mouth refresher spray, (6) foldable comb (I have a very short hair so I do not to carry/have a hair brush :p ), (7) tooth picks (I wear braces so these things are very important), (8) Japanese green tea sachet (it is good to bring and enjoy my favourite tea flavour in the morning as I can have the feeling of having breakfast at home), (9) bandaid (also very important as I walked a lot during the trip and sometimes foot blisters happened). Oh, I still have 2 sanitary napkins inside the pouch as a spare for those 'rainy days' (but not shown on the pic *too embarrassed*).

A multifunction soft pouch from Auntie Betsie. I like to use this pouch to keep my shawl or thin cardigan or extra t-shirt. This pouch is good to keep clothes as it does not have a zipper so the clothes/shawl will not get stuck on the zipper and get ripped, and its shape is very flexible.  Note that I always avoid to throw my shawl inside my bag 'uncovered' or 'unprotected' as I treasure my shawl ;)

And lastly, my batik shawl that I kept inside the above pouch. It is handwoven and handpainted and made from silk. Very beautiful when it is worn over the neck and very very soft. Look at those details, dots and strokes which was handdrawn, handpainted (by using wax) and handcoloured. This piece of batik fabrics has undergone several manual colouring processes. It is truly a work of art and I am proud of wearing it.